Carlo Giordanetti on the best art institutions worldwide, his vision for Swatch and the brand’s collaborations with Omega and Blancpain
Regardless of how little exposed to or interested in the watch world they are, most people reading this will have seen posters for the Swatch x Omega collaboration or the Scuba Bioceramic Fifty Fathoms collection the brand launched with Blancpain. The brains behind many of these projects is long-time leader at Swatch Carlo Giordanetti: officially the CEO of the Swatch Art Peace Hotel in Shanghai, a unique creative space that combines art, retailing of Swatch products and hospitality, Giordanetti also orchestrates collaborations that bridge the worlds of watchmaking, art and culture, arranging partnerships with the likes of the Louvre in Paris, Omega, Blancpain and New York’s MoMA.
His journey with Swatch began in Italy in 1987 as a sales and marketing executive, a job which allowed him to exercise his creativity by designing window displays. His aesthetic sensibilities were shaped as a child spending time in his grandmother’s atelier in Turin, where he discovered the power of design and storytelling. This foundation would serve him well through various roles at the brand—from heading international marketing in Switzerland to launching Swatch Design Labs in Milan and New York, and working on the Atlanta 1996 Olympic Games.
After several years at various luxury brands, he returned to Swatch as creative director in 2012. And while his title at Swatch may not directly reflect it, he is still heavily involved in creative decision-making.
Over a video call with Tatler, Giordanetti delves into how Swatch practises the art of storytelling through watch design and how the brand continues to innovate while staying true to its playful DNA.
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Swatch’s flagship store in Hong Kong (Photo: courtesy of Swatch)
Congratulations on the latest creative store concept launched at Mira Place in Hong Kong. Can you tell us what’s exciting about it?The new store features a beautiful LED wall installation by one of our former artists-in-residence from the Swatch Art Peace Hotel. It’s a very [open] store with many opportunities for evolution. It’s a great flagship presence for us in Hong Kong. In March, we will partially transform the store for a collection launch, and throughout the year, we will continue to bring new products and experiences. The windows are an important part of our brand expression. We treat our stores as stages to bring our products to life and, with new technologies, we can do even more. There will be something new happening all the time, which gives people a reason to come back.
How did your formative years influence your approach to design?My grandmother had a tailor’s atelier in the 1950s, Sixties and early Seventies. The influence that had on me was about two things mostly—one is colour use and the love for colours; [the other is] the love for details. When you have that kind of couture, everything is customised. What impacted me from that experience is the ability to listen to the other side of a creative partnership and then to translate the vision of a designer or an artist into an object like a watch. [The experience allowed me to] understand and merge the vision of a creative person with the needs of the watchmakers.
How do you define storytelling in the context of watch design?For Swatch, [storytelling is] almost like a fundamental of the brand. Since the very beginning, we [have given] watches a personality. We’re basically a watch that does for people more than what a watch usually does—it’s not only about telling time or being reliable or Swiss-made with quality, but it’s really about expressing a personality. The concept of Swatch is to offer you the opportunity to express yourself in different ways through your watch, through your wrist. We needed to make sure that every watch had something different, something unique to say, and this is how you do it—through storytelling. You build around a design; you build a reason for the design to exist. You build an emotional connection between the object itself and the story it tells, and therefore the person who will choose it or wear it.
Swatch x Omega Moonswatch Earthphase (Photo: courtesy of Swatch)
Can you highlight specific collections that embody strong storytelling?Our collaboration with Omega is probably one of the most interesting and surprising projects we have had in the last few years. It’s a groundbreaking operation in terms of bringing together two brands from the watch industry and creating something unexpected. The latest addition, the Mission to Earthphase, led to a complete innovation because nobody has ever done a watch with [a moon phase and an Earth phase].
At the end of last year, we made a tribute to [a part of ] Swatch history from 40 years ago, with [American artist] Keith Haringand the [Swatch World Breakdance Championship]. There was nothing nostalgic about [the watch]—it was a very lively and happy celebration of what happened 40 years ago. It connected us with a new generation of customers because many younger people are very into breakdancing today.
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How do you approach a collaboration with an art institution?When we establish a relationship with the institution, we always try to explain the Swatch vision—we don’t want to become a merchandising item or a souvenir for the museum. With the utmost respect for the artwork, we [nevertheless] take some freedom in the interpretation. The collaboration with MoMA was very successful—we had a Van Gogh [watch] in there—[as was] the collaboration with Centre Pompidou, especially the Frida Kahlo watch. The [Kahlo] self-portrait that Pompidou has is a very small painting but it became a very interesting watch.
Last year, we had a collaboration with Tate [art galleries in the UK], and had a big surprise—our interpretation of [English painter JMW] Turner [via the Scarlet Sunset watch] became a bestseller worldwide because of an element of playfulness that we introduced in the interpretation of the painting.
Do Asian markets require different products?In Asia, there is definitely a [preference] for softer, more pastel colours. But at the same time, it was in Asia that our collaboration with Omega was the most successful. There is an understanding of watchmaking which goes into the details, of understanding the added value of a mechanical movement. [There is a huge variety of preferences, even within one country:] what you see happening in Shanghai, where we have a definitely younger audience and people that like bold watches, is not the same as what happens in Beijing. The passion and understanding of Asian customers for watchmaking definitely has an influence on how they approach our watches. Our mechanical watches have been a huge success in Asia; softer colours and cuter designs work well too.
Swatch How Majestic timepiece (Photo: courtesy of Swatch)
Can you pinpoint an idea that you thought was absolutely crazy but Swatch pulled it off?One idea was a little bit daring and turned out to be a huge success worldwide is the [Swatch How Majestic] watch we dedicated to [Britain’s] Queen Elizabeth in early 2022—to pay tribute not to the monarchy, because that’s not what Swatch does, but really to her as an icon of style. At the beginning, we thought this could be like a fun side of Swatch. And it turned out to be such a huge success worldwide; until today, [there is still ] a lot of demand, so we keep reproducing that watch, because it has become part of the [brand] story.
I think it’s a beautiful example of how, first of all, you tell a story. Secondly, you can be ironic without being disrespectful. As I was a big supporter and collector of all Queen memorabilia, I never would have allowed it to be disrespectful. I have seen this watch in particular on the wrists of a lot of journalists from all over the world; I have seen it on the wrists of women who were fans of the Queen, on their daughters and their granddaughters, because it was a beautiful homage. [The watch also appeals to, for example,] lovers of corgis—you name it, there’s something in it for everybody. For me, it’s a very good example of something that is unexpectedly successful and has probably made this emotional connection with people—and that, when we do it right, is what makes a successful watch.
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